Deranged Review

A look at the obscure 1974 horror film.

Horrorfandude here again with another review on an old obscure horror flick. Today we are going to look at an old Canadian/American film called "Deranged" starring Roberts Blossom.

Before I start talking about the plot, I'll explain some history. "Deranged" was one of two horror films released in 1974 that were inspired by the stories of famous murderer Ed Gein. The other film that was released that year was "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Out of these two films, "Texas Chainsaw" is more famous. But when comparing which one is closer to the stories of Gein, "Deranged" is the closest. I've read online that "Deranged" is probably the closest film ever to the stories of Ed Gein. Now I'll tell the movie's plot.

The Plot:The movie is nararated by a newspaper columnist. He tells the story about an old country guy named Ezra Cobb.

Ezra is like Norman Bates, he's a momma's boy who loves his mother so much. When his mother dies, he misses her and goes insane. He decides to go to the graveyard and dig up her body. Ezra becomes a necrophiliac. He tries to restore his mother back to the way she looked when she was alive. He thinks his mother is really alive.

Later on in the plot, Ezra has an addiction to dating women and killing them. Ezra is one looney man. That's all I'm going to say about the plot.

My Opinion."Deranged" is an underrated horror film. I think it deserves more recognition. Like I said, this movie was released the same year as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" so surely at the time it had to get some controversy. Heck, this movie is much more bloodier than "Texas Chainsaw," but that doesn't mean "Deranged" is better than that film.

You can call it a slasher film. There is only a body count of three people, but that's okay. The movie has some sick and weird things to it like Ezra's freak mother and Ezra stabbing a dead naked corpse with a knife. The movie does have a creepy scene where one of Ezra's girlfriends comes into his house and finds him and all these dead corpses. That's a very creepy scene.

The movie is available on a double feature DVD along with "Motel Hotel." Look for it. It's a classic.

My Grade: A+

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Dear horrorfandude, first I have seen both of these flicks multiple times and do agree that "Deranged" is fantastic and a much better depiction of the Ed Gein autobiography then TCM (Texas Chain is still one of the greater flicks on shoe string budget of our time next to Halloween). I'm not sure how many people join these forum but I would love to start a fan club/ support group to bring back Monsters HD. This is where I first saw the film derranged and also watched many great B horror flicks like Pumkin Head as an example. Just talking out loud. Big fan of this site!